In the face of widespread demands by immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America for the measure to be extended to other nationalities, Bush said that although "the Mexican issue is at the forefront," he is "open-minded," and will "listen to all proposals people have in mind."

"Nothing's been ruled in and nothing's been ruled out," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "White House aides [have been] startled by the intensity of the reaction to the details of the proposal," reported the New York Times, adding that "news of the plan has galvanized immigrant organizations across the country."

By official government estimates up to 7 million people are now in the United States without papers, compared with 5 million in October 1996. That year, more than two-and-a-half million were from Mexico, around 90,000 or more were from a number of Latin American countries and the Philippines, and tens of thousands were from countries in the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe. Some 720,000 hailed from other countries.

"We realize this doesn't just affect Latinos, but also Asians, Africans, and Middle Eastern communities, regardless of where they come from," said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles.

Hanu Komaragiri, a 31-year-old software designer from India, told reporters in New York that "if this can be done for Mexicans, it can be done for others, too." Bassam Al-Bizri, 37, an engineer from Lebanon, said, "In the global economy, this is just a small fix. The real fix is open borders."

Organizations representing immigrants from Asian and Central American countries are among those planning marches on the capital later this year to demand amnesty.

Under the draft plan, released in late July by a joint U.S.-Mexican government task force headed by U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft, people from Mexico without papers--numbering at least 3 million--will be able to apply for residency. Bush has said he aims to present a final version at a September meeting with Mexican president Vicente Fox.

"Any legalization plan would be part of an expanded guest-worker program to meet labor shortages claimed by employers like farmers and restaurant owners," according to the New York Times. "We ought to make it easier for people who want to employ somebody, who are looking for workers, to be able to hire people who want to work," said the U.S. president July 27.

Reportedly, the task force has stricken the word amnesty from its vocabulary and replaced it with "regularization," "earned adjustment," and similar terms. "I oppose blanket amnesty. The American people need to know that," said Bush.

Fox called for approval of the plan in a July 28 radio broadcast in Mexico City. "I hope that with the backing of President Bush and the good will of the Senate and the American Congress," he said, "we can soon accomplish this for 3 million or 4 million Mexicans that are there." CNN reported that Fox called for the eventual legalization of "all Mexicans living secret lives in the United States."

"It isn't fair to consider [Mexican workers] illegal when they are employed, when they are working productively, when they are generating so much for the American economy," he said. "They shouldn't have to walk around like criminals or stay hidden."

Bush's moves on legalization of immigrants were condemned at the national convention of the Reform Party. "We need the United States of America Americanized," said party leader and ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan. The convention adopted a platform supporting a 10-year ban on immigration, refusing citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to noncitizens, and using the Army and National Guard to set up patrols at U.S. borders. Buchanan has campaigned on these reactionary themes in three campaigns for U.S. president.

Meanwhile, Ashcroft "reluctantly" ordered the implementation of a Supreme Court decision of several weeks earlier, reported the July 20 Washington Post. The court had ruled against the indefinite detention of some 3,400 immigrants who have been convicted by the courts in this country and have served their sentences, but whose home-country governments do not accept their return. In a 5–4 decision the judges set a limit of six months on such detention. The ruling struck a blow at a key provision of a reactionary immigration law passed in 1996 under then-President William Clinton.
 
 
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